The news that HM Revenue and Customs have managed to loose rather a lot of customer details on a pair of computer discs. It doesn’t breed great confidence for national ID cards does it? Expect reassurances that the system will be changed to ensure that this sort of thing can never happen again…
20th November 2007
Matt Buck’s animated drawings
In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who deceived Zeus, King of the Gods, and stole fire for mankind. His punishment was to be chained to a mountain top and have his liver pecked out every day, by a visiting vulture or eagle. Generally, I steer away from classical references like this in my drawing but I felt that the mess that the Prime Minister is in over Northern Rock really deserved an unpleasant image and this is certainly one.
A potted history of Prometheus clipped from Wikipedia:
On Mount Caucasus, Prometheus was tormented day and night by a giant vulture tearing at his liver. By day, the eagle would come down to the cliff and devour Prometheus’ liver, and by night the liver would regenerate, only to have it destroyed the following day again.
Will you stand up, not to be counted? No to identity cards. Why are so many people worried about having their name on a list owned by the government? Well, you could read this and then have a think about it. The clause about us being responsible for the accuracy of all the information collected is particularly interesting, because if it isn’t correct, and we all know how reliable large databases and call-centres are, we’ll be individually liable for £1,000 fines. And get this, we don’t even have a choice about signing up, at least, not if we want a working UK passport. A bit further down the road on which the government plans to take us, signing up, will become compulsory for everyone over the age of 16.
Matt Buck’s animated drawings
Alan Pearce’s marvellous book for this Christmas* made it to the hallowed halls of R4s Today programme yesterday. You can listen again to what he had to say, under fire from Sarah Montague and the nice person from the Health and Safety Executive, here. It’s under the 8.30am segment of the programme for Wednesday 14th November.
* Caution – advert. I illustrated it and provided the silly drawing for the cover.
Matt Buck’s animated drawings
15th November 2007
If you read history you’ll discover that many of the problems in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the NW borders of British imperial India, are old. The arguments about who holds the power in the relatively new nation of Pakistan, are connected to them and the partition of India after WW2. Published above and here.
UPDATED: 16th November 2007. There’s a useful interactive timeline outlining what is going on inside Pakistan here
Matt Buck’s animated drawings
…coming soon…
Matt Buck’s animated drawings
12th November 2007
Matt Buck’s animated drawings
This Remembrance day, please remember what you are not allowed to do in Westminster’s Parliament Square, thanks to our government. This is a fine piece of public spirited journalism from Tim Ireland.
UPDATED: And to those who say the internet can’t change anything, I say you are right, it can’t, but the people who use it can. Read the response that Tim got to his efforts. Little things matter, especially when talking about daft laws.
Matt Buck’s animated drawings
© Drawnalism Ltd
You get to meet interesting people who can encourage you to think about things in a way you might not have before, or, remind you of something important you had forgotten.
Mick Fealty who spoke at a blogging event last evening organised by the Daily Telegraph, reminded me of the reasons I first became a journalist. This being in a halcyon time way back before the idea of blogging had crossed the consciousness of the media business.
Below, I’m paraphrasing an appropriate quote from Mick.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? Listen as much as you write.
I might characterise my understanding of this now as a desire to learn or better understand by listening.
From the event, I should also name check Lloyd Shepherd and Jonathan Charles, who spotted that the BBC Radio 4 show – From our own correspondent – was and is a proto-blog.
So, here’s to the renewal of informed reportage. Long may it thrive.
Thanks to Shane Richmond and all at The Telegraph for arranging the evening. Shane has also got a list of reactions to the evenings musings which I am not going to try and duplicate. If you are interested in how we communicate, make and distribute timely information, it is worth a good explore.
Matthew Buck
At work: Drawnalism Ltd
